World In long Afghan war, U.S. Army tries new way to deploy trainers

09:37 14 february 2018

09:37 14 february 2018 Source:
Reuters

2 Afghan generals fired, to stand trial over academy assault

Two Afghan generals and five other army officers have been fired and charged with negligence in connection with last week's deadly assault on a military academy in which 11 soldiers were killed, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday. Ministry spokesman Daulat Waziri told The Associated Press that the seven officers will be tried in a military court. He did not offer further details.Afghanistan's Islamic State affiliate claimed the Jan. 29 attack in Kabul, which also wounded 16 soldiers. A suicide bomber struck the military unit guarding the academy, which set off a gunbattle.

Ortega is heading soon to the 16-year-old war as part of a new kind of U . S . Army training brigade specifically created to mentor Afghan soldiers in the field and In America’s longest war , Ortega’s comments carry echoes of the many trainers who came before him, who wrestled with when to

Ortega is heading soon to the 16-year-old war as part of a new kind of U . S . Army training brigade specifically created to mentor Afghan soldiers in the field and In America’s longest war , Ortega’s comments carry echoes of the many trainers who came before him, who wrestled with when to

Sgt. Cabral, a combat medic with 3rd Battalion, 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade, advises an actor serving as a member of the Afghan National Army as they tend to a simulated soldier during training at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk

A soldier from 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division plays the role of the Afghan National Army during the 1st Security Force Assistance’s Joint Readiness Training Center rotation at Fort Polk

Soldiers from 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division play the role of the Afghan National Army at Fort Polk

As a U.S. Army medic, Sergeant First Class Jonathan Ortega admits that when he gets to Afghanistan, his instinct will be to help care for any wounded Afghan troops. It is a feeling he will have to fight.

<p>The United States is renewing pressure on its European NATO allies to establish a long-term train-and-advise mission in Iraq, diplomats said, reviving a divisive issue.</p><p></p>U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis sent a letter to NATO headquarters in January calling for a formal NATO mission to Iraq with a semi-permanent or permanent command to train Iraqi forces, according to five senior NATO diplomats.

They had to re- arm , re-structure, and develop new tactics and new training while fighting the war . However, Russia was too involved with trying to make its way into the marketplace and the world economy. The victory of the Afghan people in this war and the Red Army ' s destruction of British

First, he lays out what the effect will be on the Army ’s budget of the new requirements to fight the war on The Army personnel system also adapts in other ways to supply units for deploy -ment. For the U . S . Army to fill this gap, it must have forces capable of deploying over long distances and

Ortega is heading soon to the 16-year-old war as part of a new kind of U.S. Army training brigade specifically created to mentor Afghan soldiers in the field and taught to resist taking over missions, even in the event of a Taliban attack.

"It would be hard for me," acknowledged Ortega, 30, who treated wounded Iraqi forces when he deployed to Mosul in 2005 and 2006.

"But that's a big piece ... not to get my hands dirty. To step back (and advise them)."

In America's longest war, Ortega's comments carry echoes of the many trainers who came before him, who wrestled with when to intervene directly, when to stand back and where to set expectations for Afghan soldiers who have long struggled against a Taliban insurgency.

But the U.S. Army is hoping that Ortega and his more than 800 colleagues are the start of something new, as members of the inaugural Security Force Assistance Brigade, or SFAB, whose creation aims to institutionalize and improve the advising of foreign soldiers that until now was more ad hoc.

Pakistan to send troops to Saudi Arabia to train and advise

Pakistan is sending troops to ally Saudi Arabia on a "training and advise mission", the military said, three years after it decided against sending soldiers to join the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen. The exact role the troops will play was unclear, but a statement from the army's press wing on Thursday stressed they "will not be employed outside" the kingdom.Pakistan's retired army chief, General Raheel Sharif, commands the new Saudi-led Islamic military alliance to fight terrorism, though it was not immediately clear whether the new troops would participate in that coalition.

U . S . Army 's 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade is rushing to complete its final rehearsals before deploying to Afghanistan this spring as part of President Donald Trump’s revamped war strategy. | Can new specialized units succeed in training Afghan forces where others have failed?

56 “ U . S . Doubles its Troops in the Afghan Army ,” New York Times on the Web, February 10, 2005. Some in the U . S . government have criticized Colombia’s demobilization plan as being “too lenient” and others suggest that these efforts will go a long ways toward ending Colombia’s civil war .122.

The Army proudly points to the more rigorous training and deep combat experience of the brigade's recruits, who are ready to deploy down to small-sized Afghan troop formations - bringing with them the ability to help direct U.S. air strikes.

Still, the brigade's creation has drawn scrutiny and questions about whether it is deploying too quickly and if expectations are set too high for soldiers whose goals of mentoring Afghan forces are, by definition, long-term.

"It's an evolution, not a revolution," said Jason Amerine, an Afghan war veteran and a fellow at the New America Foundation think tank in Washington, who broadly supports the SFAB's creation.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis expressed confidence in its readiness and acknowledged he had been keeping a close eye on the brigade's development, part of his efforts to ease pressure on overstretched special operations forces.

One person was killed and 37 wounded by a twin bombing inside a mosque in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Friday, medics said. Two weeks ago about 35 people died in another twin bombing at a mosque in Benghazi, the second-largest city in the country.Friday's explosions occurred during prayers at a small mosque located in the Majouri district, residents said. The devices, placed in bags at the mosque doors, appear to have been activated remotely using a mobile phone, a military source said.Benghazi is controlled by the Libyan National Army (LNA), the dominant force in eastern Libya led by commander Khalifa Haftar.

The nine-month deployment saw the Marines deploy advisors and trainers to assist the Afghan National Army (ANA) 215th Corps and 505th Zone National Police in Helmand province. Governance in Afghanistan has a long way to go . . .

Strike jets, therefore, had to fly a long way to get over the Afghanistan battlefields and provide air support for Coalition troops. In our emerging strategy, I viewed the toler-ance of the Afghan people for this new 92. an assortment of U . S . Navy SEALs deployed to Afghanistan at that time.

"You'll see more and more of this," Mattis told Reuters after a visit to the troops last week at Fort Benning, Georgia.

The deployment in the coming weeks is another sign of deepening U.S. involvement in Afghanistan under President Donald Trump, even as critics warn his military cannot promise to defeat the Taliban anytime soon or overcome Afghanistan's vast political divisions and entrenched corruption. More than 2,400 U.S. forces have died in the war.

NOT SPECIAL FORCES

Sergeant First Class Jeremiah Velez, 34, said he was well aware that his brigade's creation had triggered some anxiety in parts of the U.S. special operations community. But he was not letting it get to him.

"In one ear, out the other," said Velez, whose next deployment to Afghanistan will be his fifth.

Last year, a photo of a green-colored beret that appeared to be a prototype for the SFAB drew unwelcome comparisons with Army Special Forces, known as Green Berets.

Anger over the berets even led to an online petition with more than 88,000 signatures.

Retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Donald Bolduc, who once led commandos in Afghanistan, said the SFABs were expensive, unnecessary and risked mission creep into special operation forces' (SOF) terrain.

China Building Floating Anti-Missile Firewalls

<p>China is reportedly building sea-based anti-missile shields to deploy on destroyers in the Indian Ocean and Asia-Pacific, according to military experts.</p>On Tuesday, the Defense Ministry announced that China had successfully conducted another ground-based anti-ballistic missile system test within its borders. The test was the latest in China’s efforts to ramp up its defense systems to rival that of the U.S., Russia and other global nuclear leaders.

The Afghan Special Forces maintained a close, long -term relationship with their U . S . Special Forces trainers .203 Often, new coalition trainers and new ANA recruits were equally unprepared for their mission in Afghanistan ’s war . Until additional trainers were deployed in February 2005, ETTs

14, The U . S . Army War College Guide to National Security Policy and Strategy, vol. Searching for a way to blend the state and After the apparent success of the 2007 surge into Iraq, President Barack Obama’s new administration placed more attention to the Afghan theater in the War on Ter-rorism.

"The whole thing smells of mimicking SOF," said Bolduc, who served 66 months in Afghanistan.

The Army, which ultimately chose a brown beret for the brigade, has stressed the SFAB is not special forces, whose responsibilities typically include training foreign militaries, particularly commandos.

The SFAB's debut reflects an attempt by the Army to deal better with open-ended counter-insurgency battles in a way that does not undermine growing U.S. focus on high-end military challenges from China and Russia.By creating six planned U.S. Army training brigades, the Pentagon hopes to let other brigades and special operations forces prepare for different missions.

Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley has championed the SFABs as a way to institutionalize a role the Army performed more haphazardly during the war, ripping apart brigades to find soldiers to train Afghans.

"We were pulling it out of our butts, so to speak," Milley said at the brigade's activation ceremony at Fort Benning last Thursday. "We made it happen. But it wasn't as good as it could have been."

THE LONGEST WAR

First Sergeant Sammy Walker, who deployed four times to Iraq, bristles at the idea of walking away from Afghanistan or Iraq and points to the sacrifices of friends who lost their lives.

"Over the years, 16 years, you start counting back how many people you've known who have been hurt or killed. It's a lot of people," said Walker, part of a team of SFAB logistics advisers.

Trump long identified with war-weary Americans skeptical about the Afghan war, even advocating a pullout. But faced with the risks posed by the Taliban, he reversed himself and last August approved a more aggressive war strategy.

Yet a battlefield defeat for the Taliban seems distant.

"I'm not entirely convinced that the SFABs are going to make a strategic difference in winning the war," said Seth Jones, an expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He said a best-case scenario would see the Taliban realize it cannot win, leading to peace negotiations.

Walker and his team are well aware of Afghanistan's many shortfalls, including accusations of corruption. But they are taking a longer view.

Grand jury: Man claimed to be an Army general to land a chopper .
<p>A Raleigh, North Carolina man pretended to be an Army general heading to a classified briefing and flew in a helicopter to SAS in Cary, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina alleges.</p>A federal grand jury indicted Christian Gerald Desgroux, 57, on Wednesday on charges of claiming to be a U.S. Army lieutenant general.

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